Chapter 10 - Doopliss the Duplighost

I opened my mouth to yell, but he cupped his freezing hand over my mouth. I cringed.

“No-“ he said, looking around nervously, floating a few feet off the ground.

“But- but that Duplighost- made a copy-“ I stammered. Waluigi grabbed my shoulders, chilling me to the bone. I cringed again.

“Don’t you get it?” he yelled. “This IS me! That danged Duplighost- well you can guess-“

“He’s-you?” I gasped, pointing at the foyer.

“Yes!” Waluigi yelled. I understood. “Julie and Mario already know what happened. I met them back up at Peach’s castle…”

“That’s where they went…” I whispered. “They did know. They…like… attacked you.” I chuckled. Waluigi ignored me.

“…And both of them said you’re the one to go to for ghost problems,” he added, with a sly smirk. I swallowed hard.

“The Duplighosts’ name is Doopliss. He can’t stand for you to tell him his name.” he continued. “Mario and Julie are in Peach’s castle, now, trying to figure it all out…”

“Peach’s castle?” I repeated. “Where we found Doopliss for the first time?”

“Yeah.” Waluigi said. “Follow me. Get the rest of the group. We’ve got some exploring to do.”

“Exploring.” I said. “Why do you call it ‘Exploring?’”

“What else should I call it? Mario said that there’s a parrot who is the only one who can control Doopliss living in a small town called Twilight Town. That’s where we need to go…” he said. “Come on. Being a ghost isn’t much fun.”

“Why should I help you?” I asked slyly. “Remember, just the other day? You said you didn’t neeeeed me?”

Waluigi floated down close to my face and said “Do you really think the world needs two of me?”

I thought about that for a minute and made up my mind.

“Allright, allright. I’ll go get everyone.” I said. “What will you do?”

“I’m going to go to Peach’s castle,” he said. “I’m going to go head off Mario and Julie.”

“Fine,” I said, and left the room.

How scary… I thought. Right in front of me, that had happened… and the thought just gave me chills. Was THAT what had happened to Mario? That he had been forced to live as a ghost, and used as a puppet for another? Is that why he was so secretive about it? How scary…

“Guys,” I said to Ricky and Lauren, “We need to go back to Peach’s castle.”

“You realize how far away that is?” Lauren told me. “Don’t you have that wand thing that Kolorado gave you?”

“Oh, yeah…” I said. “I dropped it in the lawn somewhere behind the castle. Come on.”

We left the room. “Come on, Waluigi,” I shouted, forcing myself to remember that the real Waluigi was making his way back to Peach’s castle.

“Allright, allright,” he said. “Where are we going?”

“Peach’s castle,” I replied simply and smartly. “Mario and Julie went that way.”

“Whatever,” he replied dully.

“Come on,” I said, creaking open the door to the hotel to make sure that all of the media was gone. The coast was clear. “I dropped the little wand out behind the castle.”

We walked the short distance to the back of the castle, and through the large amount of rubble behind it, I couldn’t see the wand.

“What are we looking for, again?” Ricky asked, in a bored tone.

“The little bronze map wand,” I said. “That’ll get us to Peach’s castle in the blink of an eye…” I tried to remember where I had been when I tossed it behind my head and ran.

Well, I told myself, if I had just tossed it behind my head, wouldn’t it have landed a little ways away from the castle?

And so it had. Lying in the backyard’s surviving flower patch was the five-inch-long wand.

“There,” I said, going over to it and picking it up. I traced my finger on the small map, and it scrolled and stopped on a spot just over the mushroom kingdom.

“Stay close, everyone,” I said, and pressed the small button on the side in.

A micro-second later, I blinked; there we were, standing just outside of Peach’s castle.

“Where do you think Mario and Julie are?” Lauren asked.

“Inside, I suppose- probably back where the little cellar was…” I said, and creaked open the door.

They, however, were not at all in the basement, but just beyond the door. Both of them looked stunned to see us.

“Luigi!” Julie said loudly. “There you are… what are you doing here? What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the wand in my hand.

“This is kind of like the time wands, only it’s like a map, where you can travel to different places, rather than times…” I told Mario, handing him the wand.

“Wow!” Mario said, eyeing it. “This… this is amazing! Did you… know this is what we need?”

“We have to go to Twilight town, don’t we?” I asked.

“Twilight town?” Doopliss-Waluigi yelped. “Wh…why there?”

“You’ll see,” Julie told him. “Come on, everyone.”

Mario tapped in the travel place on the wand and pressed the button in, and in the blink of an eye, we were standing right next to the darkest and creepiest tower I’ve ever seen.

“Here?” I said blankly. “Here? THIS is Twilight town?”

“This is the steeple,” Mario said. “Come on.” He immediately walked past the creaky gate.

“I’m not going in there,” Doopliss-Waluigi said.

“Why not?” I asked slyly. “You don’t want the fuzzies to suck you dry, do you?”

“N…no…” he said reluctantly, and then followed us into the steeple.

The inside was even darker and gloomier than the outside. It was absolutely huge, however, and if it wasn’t so ghost-house looking, it would be an actually very nice place.

“I know my way around here pretty well,” Mario said, in a monotone. “Watch out for the boos, they live here, too…”

“What?!” I yelped, sounding a bit like a dog that had had its nose smashed in the door. “Boos? Here?”

“Go figure?” Mario said, smiling weirdly at me. “Come on. The first flight of stairs is this way.”

“Uh… you go that way,” Doopliss-Waluigi said. “I’ll just… uh… stay here.”

“Do what you want,” Julie said slyly. “The boos won’t let you out, anyway.”

Doopliss-Waluigi gulped. “Yeah, okay.” He said.

“What is with him?” Ricky asked, once we were out of earshot and starting to climb the stairs.

“Waluigi’s been possessed by a Duplighost,” Julie said told him darkly. “That’s not Waluigi. Doopliss is the ghost; Waluigi encountered him in Peach’s castle. We’re here to straighten things out.”

I gulped. The stairs creaked and groaned as we climbed slowly up. I seemed to be having trouble moving my feet- my stomach now felt like it weighed ten times more than usual. We had just got off the second flight of stairs when Mario stopped dead in front of me.

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